PANAJI
Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) is close to finishing work on drafting a building regulation which will help in regularising some of the building-related irregularities in the industrial estates.
This was confirmed by GIDC’s chairman Ganesh Gaonkar.
“We are in the final stages of drafting this regulation, and once this is done, we will send it to the state government,” he said.
Over the years, irregularities in Goan industrial estates have piled up. These mostly pertain to three building related regulations. One, the FAR is 100% in industrial estate, which means a company can’t have a building area, across floors, more than the area of the plot. Two, no industry can cover more than 50% of the plot given to it. Three, every building is required to reserve a few metres from its area to access its facility in case of an emergency.
Sometime back, the state government had increased the penalty on such irregularities through an amendment of law. The penalty for construction or use of land and buildings contrary to terms of holding was increased from Rs.10,000 to Rs.1 lakh, and the fine for continuing contravention was increased from existing Rs. 500 to Rs. 5,000 per day. Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) was concerned about the increase in penalty; moreover, it also felt that there has to be a long-term solution for such issues.
In this regard, representatives from GCCI met Industries Minister Mahadev Naik and Gaonkar some days ago, and had requested both of them not to increase penalty by this huge amount.
Gaonkar clarified, “The penalty, which has been increased by an amendment of law, is only on a prospective basis, and not on retrospectively.”
This means that the increased penalty will be levied only on such irregularities which have taken place post the recent amendment. Increased penalty is not applicable to events which happened before the amendment. It is precisely these past irregularities, committed before the recent amendment, which have made it necessary for GIDC to come out with new building regulation.
“We can’t regularise just like that. There has to be some provision in the law,” Gaonkar added.
GIDC will have to be careful in drafting regulations as buildings are also governed by the Town and Country Planning (TCP) department’s regulations. Both the regulations should be in sync to weed out any irregularities in future
